Every tiny concession paves the way for the next, and each capitulation preps the ground. With each passing moment, shame subsides, guilt slowly evaporates, and the abhorrent begins to feel normal.
Republished with permission from John Pavlovitz
How does a human being reach this kind of moral wasteland?
How do millions of professed followers of Jesus reach a point where they collectively harbor predators, willfully abandon survivors, and so easily redact the truth in order to shield the monsters from the raking light of accountability?
How do Christians align with rapists?
I imagine it begins, as most roads to hell do, one seemingly infinitesimal moral compromise at a time: a justification of a damning video, the scrolling away from an uncomfortable news story, a single justification that seems acceptable in the moment, one solitary vote, a sole willful delusion.
And as with all reprehensible acts that at first sound every alarm within a decent person’s psyche, they get easier over time.
Every tiny concession paves the way for the next, and each capitulation preps the ground.
With each passing moment, shame subsides, guilt slowly evaporates, and the abhorrent begins to feel normal.
As the hours stretch into days and the months become years, eventually the voice of Jesus in their heads is silenced—replaced with Fox News anchors, Republican talking heads, and brimstone-breathing preachers, who give them permission to abandon their better angels.
Their media and their churches and their social circles all become closed communities of confirmation bias, where facts are squeezed out, an alternative truth is curated, and a bastardized religion of American whiteness becomes Gospel.
And as the apparent wins line up: political victories, Congressional chambers, supermajorities, Supreme Court seats, passed legislation, these things begin to feel righteous: confirmation that God is on their side, even as they link arms and leap into the abyss.
And then one day, (this day), a massive swath of once faithful, compassionate, and good-hearted human beings find themselves passionately shielding pedophiles, concealing predators, and rallying around human traffickers—and feeling righteous in the process.
In the Scriptures, Jesus asks a crowd comprised of his followers and his students, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” Mark 8:36
The question is rhetorical, of course, as his message was that the “good” of moral compromise, whatever apparent success or power or wealth that accompanies a soul transaction, is ultimately worthless.
Jesus is asking the question of millions of his alleged disciples in America right now:
- Is a Supreme Court seat worth your morality?
- Are sexual assault survivors the acceptable collateral damage of a theocracy?
- Is a presidency or Congressional majority worth partnering with rich rapists?
I’m pretty sure I know what is answers are and it’s not good news for them.
John Pavlovitz is a writer, pastor, and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina. A 25-year veteran in the trenches of local church ministry, John is committed to equality, diversity, and justice—both inside and outside faith communities. When not actively working for a more compassionate planet, John enjoys spending time with his family, exercising, cooking, and having time in nature. He is the author of A Bigger Table, Hope and Other Superpowers, Low, and Stuff That Needs to Be Said.
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